From Crisis to Solutions: Towards Better Source Water Protection and Nutrient Management in the Hullcar Valley

This recommendations report offers options and specific recommendations to address drinking water source protection and improve nutrient management in British Columbia’s Hullcar Valley. It is oriented towards finding solutions to existing problems and providing recommendations on how to avoid similar situations in the Hullcar Valley, and elsewhere in the province, in the future.

Since 2014, residents in the area have been on a Water Quality Advisory due to elevated nitrate concentrations in the aquifer. In August 2017, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy ordered a review of the Hullcar aquifer situation to gather information to improve management and decision-making related to source water protection and agricultural nutrients. As part of this review, the Ministry commissioned a review team led by the University of Victoria’s POLIS Project on Ecological Governance to prepare this report.

Further information on the Hullcar aquifer situation and updates on government action can be found on this detailed provincial government website.